Combat awards process broken?

Central Command: lost Medal of Honor nomination "unacceptable"

President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Honor to former Army Capt. William D. Swenson of Seattle, Wash., during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House Oct. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martine)
— AP

President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Honor to former Army Capt. William D. Swenson of Seattle, Wash., during a ceremony in the East Room at the White House Oct. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Pablo Martine)
/ AP

U.S. Central Command has ordered military officials in Afghanistan to conduct a detailed review of their awards tracking process, calling it “unacceptable” that combat medal recommendations have been frequently lost.

Former Army Capt. Will Swenson was awarded the Medal of Honor Oct. 15, nearly four years after his nomination for the nation’s highest combat decoration was submitted.

A Pentagon Inspector General investigation concluded that U.S. forces in Afghanistan “frequently lost awards, had unreliable processes, and employed inadequate tracking systems,” according to a Nov. 7 letter to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine.

Those weaknesses in the awards section “likely contributed” to a failure of military officials in Afghanistan to forward Swenson’s medal nomination to Central Command, investigators concluded.

Swenson had complained bitterly about the lack of air and artillery support from his Army commanders during the 2009 battle for which he was belatedly honored. A Marine corporal, Dakota Meyer, was awarded the Medal of Honor Sept. 15, 2011 for his actions in the same battle.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, who was commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan at the time, had recommended downgrading Swenson’s nomination to a Distinguished Service Cross, Hunter’s staff said.

After the commander made that decision recommending a lesser award, which was in his discretion, the packet was returned to the awards section in Afghanistan for further processing, the inspector general concluded.

Investigators did not explain why the nomination went missing at that point, but they found “no evidence a senior official mishandled, lost, destroyed, purged, disposed of, or unnecessarily delayed the recommendation.”

Swenson was finally awarded the Medal of Honor after a duplicate nomination attracted support from a new commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen.

Hunter asked Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, for a comprehensive review of the awards process in Afghanistan, saying “the responsibility of recognizing the actions of our brave men and women, many of whom have made the ultimate sacrifice, must not be taken lightly.”

Austin responded Nov. 21, assuring Hunter that after the review is complete “we will make any changes needed to improve this process.”

An overhaul of such a "flawed" awards process is long overdue, said Joe Kasper, Hunter's spokesman.

An estimate of how long the military command in Afghanistan may need to review its awards tracking process was not immediately available, CENTCOM officials said Friday.